Pupils at St Ninian’s primary school in Stirling walk or run a mile every day – the ‘daily mile’.
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian

Sarah Phillips: Let’s teach kids that fitness can be free, easy and fun

I despised PE at school. I faked sick notes, had my period more frequently than was biologically possible – did anything to avoid the ritual humiliation of running around cones in the cold followed by an even colder communal shower. It was as if they were trying to put you off fitness for life.

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Luckily it didn’t work and when I turned 20 I discovered running, which has enhanced my life in so many ways, which other people have described far more eloquently than I ever could. This is why I think the “daily mile” initiative to get schoolchildren to run or walk en masse for 15 minutes each day is ingenious.

There is no easier form of exercise than running. You put on your trainers, leave the house, and hey presto, you’re exercising. No expensive gym subscription necessary; no competitive neon lycra uniform. Just run. So what better thing to teach kids – especially in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic – than the fact that fitness can be free, easy and most importantly fun, as you chat to your mates along the way. It also dispels the myth that you have to be good at sport, as many of us aren’t, in order to be fit.

Elaine Wyllie, who is headteacher of St Ninians, the primary school in Stirling in Scotland that pioneered the scheme, says of its success: “The children are fit and healthy, they come in energised, ready to learn and focused, apple-cheeked and bright-eyed.” While this may sound like something out of Enid Blyton, Wyllie is definitely on to something, with signs that not only the children’s health but also possibly their grades have improved (a study is under way to assess this). I’m quite sure they are happier for it too.

Obviously there is the issue of making sure those who can’t run or walk a mile very easily don’t feel excluded from this social in the fresh air; and of course there’s the delightful British weather, which looms large in most people’s traumatic memories of PE. But running in the rain is definitely character-building, as we all know. And it’s only 15 minutes.

In fact we shouldn’t stop with children. Office workers would benefit immensely from a mile a day to combat our increasingly sedentary lives. I’m off now …

I’m sure all the fitness freaks, cross-country enthusiasts and the naturally skinny will raise a glass of kale juice to the “daily mile” scheme. But spare a thought for us poor fat kids forced out on to the road for a painful, wheezy jog, and then ask yourself whether this ritual torture is really the best way to encourage a life-long exercise habit in those struggling with obesity. After all, this scheme isn’t aimed at those who are already fit – it’s the fat kids it’s supposed to help.

Enforced running would have been a further trauma for somebody who already found PE traumatic enough

As a once “cuddly, big-boned” child, I remember all too well the agony of cross-country, the regular pre-football laps, the sweaty, jiggly embarrassment of the always last to be picked. That was enough to be put me off exercise for a decade.

I remember vividly faking a groin strain to get out of cross-country one year – the only injury my juvenile mind felt assured no teacher would feel comfortable examining. I got a friend to leave his bag in between the desks and staged an elaborate tumble over it, before lying in a heap on the floor. It worked a treat. My friend got in trouble, but I got to help marshall the race – feeling smug as fellow chubsters who lacked my ingenuity struggled around the field.

Enforced running would not have cured my aversion, it would have been a further trauma for somebody who already found PE traumatic enough. I do jog now on occasion – but I still hate it. Some of us simply aren’t built for that type of exercise.

Far better to try to develop PE in primary schools that offers a variety of different, and fun, activities. For those not naturally inclined or physiologically suited to exercise, running is likely to be the worst possible option. There’s no purpose, no distraction from the pain, no fun to be had. And that is the key.

If you want to tackle childhood obesity, make exercise a form of entertainment. These are very young children after all – capture their imagination and you can start a habit for life. Sports like tennis, rugby, even good old British bulldog are more likely to appeal to a broad range of children. Even better, offer a choice – rather than trying to pigeon-hole kids into one amorphous group. Adults don’t all excel at, or enjoy, the same types of sport – why should children?